UCSF

The proliferating influx of Arab immigrants into the United States unveils several transitional challenges and stressors that can create and exacerbate mental health issues, including depression and emotional distress. Despite the noteworthy impact of Arab mental well-being on the host country, research on addressing emotional distress and accompanying feelings of depression within Arab populations remains notably scant within the realm of mental health studies. Therefore, the first three goals of this dissertation were to: 1) synthesize the available evidence on the psychosocial and demographic factors associated with depression, anxiety, PTSD, and PD among Arab individuals in the U.S.; 2) explore the levels and risk factors associated with depression feelings and emotional distress for Arab immigrants; and 3) evaluate the potential mediation roles of social cohesion and family life impairment on the association between depressive feelings and emotional distress. We conducted a systematic review of the literature on seventeen distinct studies and examined data from the CHIS survey (2013–2022). This study found that the overall prevalence of depression was 23.54%, while that of emotional distress was 4.43%. We found no significant difference in the prevalence rates of depression or emotional distress between first-generation Arab immigrants and second-generation Arab Americans. The review identified key determinants of mental health symptoms among Arab individuals in the United States, including being female, old age, refugee status, and perceived discrimination. Our analysis of 9-year CHIS data further reveals that being less well-educated, being unemployed, or having lived in the U.S. for more than 15 years was associated with an increased risk for depression and emotional distress feelings. We also uncovered statistically significant partial mediations for both social cohesion and family life impairment in the association between depression feelings in the past 12 months and emotional distress in the past 30 days. The findings of our analysis present compelling evidence of the necessity of implementing policy changes and enhancing service delivery methods targeting high-risk groups of Arab immigrants, with the ultimate goal of enhancing the psychological well-being of individuals of Arab descent.